As a bridal hair and makeup artist, you know that the time you put in extends beyond just what you spend doing your bride’s hair and makeup. To get to the point of providing the actual service, you put a lot of time and effort into coordinating, communicating, and getting to the actual wedding day. Many people focus on just the service cost but, how do you make sure you incorporate the costs for all your time into that pricing?

There are two ways to make sure you are including that administrative time into your pricing: You can either increase your service fees to account for the additional time, or you need to find different way to include administrative fees for services outside of just doing the hair and just doing the makeup. 

The first option, which is simpler, means that you need to break down and examine your service fees to include additional costs that you will have doing administrative tasks. This may mean you charge one amount for you bride, and less for her bridal party. If you choose this option, you need to be able to articulate why the bride is more expensive – and it’s not because she’s getting better service from you. All members of the bridal party should be getting 100% quality service. You need to be able to include that the bride’s fee includes the service beforehand – including coordination, timelines, working with the wedding planner, and whatever else you include throughout your process. 

The second option – including administrative fees for services outside of the hair and makeup will take a little bit more work but ensure that your time is compensated. There are a few different administrative fees you should be considering: 

Mileage/ Travel Fees

While mileage is travel, when it’s out of the norm from what you typically provide, you should be compensated for that. If you typically perform trials in your studio, but the bride would like it somewhere else, you should have a mileage fee. You are taking away your controlled environment, which requires you to spend time packing, preparing, and traveling to the requested location. Additional travel requires wear and tear on your vehicle, equipment, and extra time away from your business, let alone the cost of gas. Charging a mileage fee and a travel fee will help eliminate some of these extra costs for you. 

Many of us have a studio or venue to make things convenient for us. When a bride wants you to travel to where they are, they want it to be convenient for them and you should be compensated for that. 

Change Fees 

Sometimes you have a bride that is consistently going back and forth on the timing. This causes you to have to facilitate all kinds of additional communication, with your team, with the photographer, or whoever else is included in your timeline. Something to incorporate into your contract, and which you should charge for, is “any changes to the timeline or location will result in x administrative fees.” This protects you from those times your bride might say, “Well, the photographer wants to start an hour earlier” which requires you and your team to change your timeline and rearrange your schedules. This is all time you have to spend, and you should be compensated for it – but you need to make sure it’s included in your contract.  

Episode 21 – How should I charge administrative fees?

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Additional Setup or Breakdown 

You may not have to move your setup often on a wedding day but, if the bride requires that you should be incorporating a setup and breakdown fee. You are putting in more effort (outside of the normal) to re-set up and take down your equipment. That all takes time. It takes time for you to reheat your tools, sanitize your kit and carry all your equipment and supplies to another room or another location. 

Second Looks or Touch-ups

If your bride is asking for a second look after the wedding, you need to make sure you incorporate the time between your finished service, and doing a second look, and the cost of providing that second look. Depending on how long the wedding is, that is a few hours of your time that you can’t leave and come back for. It’s hours out of your day that you are waiting to provide that second service, and a cost for that should be included in your pricing, whether through a fee or for the overall price for the bride. 

If you’re not quite comfortable with how to price your administrative fees into your bride pricing or aren’t sure how to add the extra fees into your contract, I offer a pricing guide where I break down service rates. I also breakdown the additional costs that people either bypass or forget. I want to empower you to understand that – Yes – you do have the right to charge for these extra things. 

What's Next?

Grab your copy of The Ultimate Pricing Guide For Bridal Artists today and start seeing higher profits in your bridal beauty business.  Includes everything you need to work less and still make more by filling your calendar with Dream Brides ready to pay your rates.